Read Online Dark Halo (An Angel Eyes Novel) by Shannon Dittemore - Free Book Online Page A

dropped—Jake’s bag. “It’s in here,” she says, handing the bag to Damien. “Take it.”
    “Untie him,” Marco demands, moving closer to Jake. He looks first to Damien and then to Olivia. But no one’s listening to Marco.
    Damien tips the bag onto the floor. A collection of clothing topples out, along with a few personal things. A wallet. A leather journal.
    “What are you doing?” Marco asks. “LoWhat are you doing?owp0oking for my fifty-eight cents?” His fingers grasp and slip against the cords on Jake’s wrists. “I can’t do this. I need a knife. Cut him free.”
    But he’s ignored.
    “Where is it?” Damien asks.
    “Check the pockets,” Olivia says, slinking toward Jake. “I’m sure it’s there.”
    “You told me you had it,” Damien charges. “You haven’t checked the maggot’s bag?”
    “Didn’t need to. It’s there. I can hear the thing.”
    Jake’s so consumed by the conversation that he forgets the pain in his arm, his head.
    “You can hear it?” Damien asks, echoing Jake’s thought.
    “You can’t?” she asks with a flip of her silky black hair.
    Damien pulls at the many zippers on the bag, one pocket after another, jamming his large hand into each one before moving on.
    “It’s in the front one,” Jake says, his voice cracking, his eyes moving back to Marco’s. “Unless you removed it.”
    “Removed what?” Marco asks. Jake watches him for signs ofa lie. But his gift isn’t sight, and if this actor wanted to lie to him, it’d be only too easy.
    “The halo,” Jake says.
    Marco looks to Damien, who’s finally found the front pocket of the bag.
    “I didn’t know . . . didn’t realize it was in there,” Marco says, his eyes huge, the look on his face leaving little doubt of his ignorance. “How?”
    Jake takes pity on him. “When you came by the house for your stuff, you took—”
    “The wrong bag,” Marco finishes.
    “Yeah.”
    Olivia stands behind Marco now, her hands on her hips, scrutinizing Jake with those caramel eyes of hers. “I still don’t understand why you took the boy,” she calls over her shoulder. “What do you intend to do with him?”
    But Damien’s preoccupied. His fingers fumble with a jammed zipper. He curses and yanks harder, splitting the zipper and sending the halo tumbling to the floor. Jake flinches as it lands on the concrete with a metallic chink . They all turn to look. All except Olivia.
    “I thought I’d put distance between me and that thing,” Marco says, his voice quiet. “But I’d just strapped it to my back, hadn’t I? Why does he want it?”
    For the first time since Marco entered the basement, Jake looks him over, considers him. He looks awful, tortured, his green eyes ringed red. His face is pale, and despite the extra clothing in his bag, he hasn’t changed since the last time Jake saw him. And that was what, a day ago? Two days?
    “I don’t know why he wants it, Marco.”
    They watch as Damien steps from the shadows and tosses the bag aside. He kneels and with careful fingers lifts the halo off the floor. Jake half expects it to burn him like the halo burned Elle when Olivia touched it, but the demon registers no pain. Strange, considering the supernatural heat the halo is known to give off. But it seems only Damien’s celestial form is affected by heat.
    He turns it in his hands, its glow lighting his olive skin, brightening his black eyes. When he speaks his words are laced with adrenaline and purpose of the darkest kind.
    “What happens when one of us wears the crown of the faithful?” he asks, stepping closer. “Aren’t you curious? What happens when a demon wears a halo?”
    Marco inches closer to Jake. “What is he talking about?”
    But Jake shakes his head. “Damien—”
    The demon’s eyes are frenetic now, staring at the halo as it molds from crown to cuff and back again. He’s mesmerized. “I want to know if its power can be wielded. If this golden halo can be used to instill gifts